The International Bridge of Friendship, located between the cities of Foz do Iguaçu (Brazil)
and Ciudad del Este (Paraguay), is part of the contemporary scenery of the border. Around
the Bridge, there is a controversial imaginary, different from the time of its construction,
when it was seen as a breakthrough, especially in the relationship between the two
countries. In this sense, the present research aims to contribute to a construction of a
cultural history of the Bridge, problematizing the representations established in the period
of its construction (1956-1965) present in the Brazilian newspaper O Globo. The
construction of the Bridge is a result of the process of rapprochement between the
Brazilian and Paraguayan governments initiated in the early 1940s and intensified in the
1950s, related to issues of the time such as the "March to the West," a policy initiated
under the Vargas government whose aim was to bring "development" to places still
"inhospitable"; in the government of Juscelino Kubitschek the occupation of the West
continued with the "Plan of Goals". Throughout the construction of the Bridge we can see
an ideal of "friendship" and "harmony" between Brazil and Paraguay, which we consider to
be the result of the need to overcome the memory of the War of the Triple Alliance (1864-
1870) of rapprochement between the two countries. Finally, there is a silence in the reports
about the communities and peoples that inhabited the region, especially the indigenous
populations, helping to build the "void" and the retraction of this environment as a place
still "uninhabited". It highlights the lack or minimal reference to relations / disputes with
Argentina, interested party and with issues involving the two countries